The British Museum’s unparalleled collection of international treasures includes the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures, and the spectacular Mummy of Katebet. Yesterday it acquired yet another great cultural artifact: James Bond.
Led by Daniel Craig (who dashed from photographers to VIP area with the urgency of an agent dodging a bullet), the cast of Spectre partied for the night at the museum following the movie’s premiere, across town at the Royal Albert Hall.
At that screening—and despite powerful plays by Léa Seydoux in eye-magnet, sequin-spattered Prada and Stephanie Sigman in hard-core Marchesa—the attendee most gawped at was the Duchess of Cambridge. From high in the gods right down to the stalls, every eye in the hall targeted Kate—and her perfectly princess-y dress by Jenny Packham—as we stood for a strangely shortened burst of “God Save the Queen” before the movie began.
The movie itself? Well, no spoilers here, but Spectre is pretty good: Fights, crashes, booze, cars, gadgets, and women are romped through with relish. Of course, this is double-oh-so-predictable: Even Craig himself calls Bond “a misogynist” and Ian Fleming described 007 as a figure of “blatant heterosexuality.” Yet while Fourth Wave it most certainly isn’t, Spectre does at least feature strongishly drawn female characters—the phrase “Bond girls” should surely be terminated for extreme prejudice—who give the tight-panted assassin roué as good as they get. Bond even kind of gets dumped.
The party, sadly, did not feature the royal party: Kate, Prince William, and Prince Harry (whose beard is becoming increasingly Henry VIII-ish) slipped back to the palace post-movie. Along with Craig, Monica Bellucci, Seydoux (in Fall ’15 Schiaparelli), Sigman, and Naomie Harris (in Spring ’16 Mugler) all paused in the Great Court to pose in front of a troupe of Día de Muertos dancers and skeleton figures. This theme for the night referred back to the fantastic single-shot opening of Spectre, starring Craig with Sigman and filmed in Mexico City. In the glorious domed reading room where Karl Marx once wrote Das Kapital, the bars heaved with Belvedere Vodka and Bollinger and the buffets were heaped with hams. An exception to the black-tied masculine majority was Sam Smith, who wore a white dinner jacket and declared “Diamonds Are Forever” as his favorite Bond theme song. Shirley Bassey was unfortunately not quite close by enough to hear. By the end of the night, Craig had wrenched off his bow tie and was in the arms of his wife, Rachel Weisz: Mission accomplished.
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